1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an object detection apparatus and method. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to an object detection apparatus and method that are used with a vehicle, a road infrastructure system, or a system for monitoring a particular facility and that can individually and accurately detect objects around the vehicle or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, radar apparatuses or camera apparatuses for vehicles have been mounted on vehicles such as passenger cars and have detected other vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles around the vehicles, objects installed on roads, or the like. A radar apparatus or camera apparatus for vehicles detects a target object approaching the vehicle from the front or side of the vehicle and measures the position, speed, or the like of the target object relative to the vehicle. The radar apparatus then determines whether or not the target object may collide with the vehicle, on the basis of the measurement result. If it determines that there is such a risk, the radar apparatus gives an alarm to the driver or automatically controls the vehicle so that the collision is avoided.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-151621 discloses a technology that detects objects using both radar and camera apparatuses for vehicles. Specifically, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-151621 identifies the number of target objects and the azimuth range thereof using measurement information acquired by the camera apparatus and corrects measurement information acquired by the radar apparatus on the basis of the target object number and azimuth range.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0300870 discloses a technology that monitors traffic volume using both camera and radar apparatuses installed around a road. Specifically, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0300870 monitors and manages traffic by detecting position and speed information of a remote vehicle using the radar apparatus, identifying the position of the vehicle in a camera image, and then presenting the situations of remoter and closer vehicles than the vehicle in the camera image.
Conventionally, a radar apparatus or camera apparatus is installed to monitor a particular facility such as an airport, harbor, railroad station, or building and prevents intrusion of suspicious objects (including a suspicious person) by detecting an object intruding from above the ground or midair (space higher than above the ground) and presenting information to a related security system or display unit.